Will the Final Day of AHEAD Committee Negotiations End with Consensus? Have You Kept Up with the Key Electronic Announcements On Low Earnings, Accreditation, Student Aid Handbook Updates and More?

Overview
To say that it has been a very busy week for the U.S. Department of Education (Department) would be an understatement. Not only has the Department been hosting the first of two week-long sessions seeking to develop regulations implementing new statutory requirements enacted in the One Big Beautiful Bill (OB3), they have also published seven Electronic Announcements (EA) including most notably the addition of a new “low earnings indicator” to be included as part of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), updated volumes of the 2025-26 Federal Student Aid Handbook, the appointment of a sixth and final new member of the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), and details of an upcoming training webinar.

Here is our attempt to share details on all of these developments.

AHEAD Committee – Federal Workforce Pell Grants & Other Pell Provisions
CSPEN has committed to providing the community with daily updates, but to be quite honest with you, the negotiation throughout the week was so fluid that trying to summarize the process and the discussion did not make a lot of sense. The AHEAD Committee over the course of the past four days has worked through eighty (80) different proposals to achieve consensus on key additions to the Federal Pell Grant program.

Throughout the week, the Department and the Non-federal negotiators have made considerable headway in working through all the proposals. At the conclusion of yesterday’s negotiations – following a series of caucuses – key compromises were within reach on portions of the regulations where concerns had previously been raised.

Today the Department will begin with providing a final draft proposal and go through it section by section seeking support for the regulatory language which will establish the new Workforce Pell Grant program and other revisions on Pell eligibility.

CSPEN will summarize the outcome of today’s final day and whether the AHEAD Committee will achieve consensus on the seven topic areas included in the negotiations on a special Tuesday edition of our Federal Legislative & Regulatory Update webinars.

New Low Earnings Indicatory on the FAFSA
Effective Dec. 7, 2025, Federal Student Aid (FSA) has implemented a new lower earnings indicator as part of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) experience.
This indicator provides students with additional information about the typical earnings of graduates from the schools they are considering.

This Electronic Announcement outlines how the lower earnings indicator works and provides guidance for accessing and interpreting the data.

CSPEN will provide detailed information on this important new addition to the FAFSA on next Thursday’s regularly scheduled Federal Legislative & Regulatory Update webinar. We have had several conversations regarding both the EA and have key details to share with the community next week.

New Volumes 1, 4 and 6 of the Federal Student Aid Handbook Published
Updates to Volume 1 – Student Eligibility, Volume 4 – Processing Aid and Managing FSA Funds, and Volume 6 – The Campus-Based Programs have been posted to the digital FSA Handbook. As stated in the EA institutions can review the new updates by gong to the FSA Knowledge Center (centralstatesedu.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=75e01bde202d593ed21c1c91c&id=542edd21a7&e=05bce952ad) .

CSPEN will provide a summary of the updates on next Thursday’s regularly scheduled Federal Legislative & Regulatory Update webinar.

New Section 117 Reporting Portal Training Webinar
As announced on Dec. 1, 2025 (centralstatesedu.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=75e01bde202d593ed21c1c91c&id=a77a2b046e&e=05bce952ad) , Dec. 3, 2025 (centralstatesedu.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=75e01bde202d593ed21c1c91c&id=996376731a&e=05bce952ad) , and Dec. 5, 2025 (centralstatesedu.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=75e01bde202d593ed21c1c91c&id=60b7b47ce7&e=05bce952ad) , the U.S. Department of Education (ED) is reminding institutions to register to virtually attend the “Using the New Section 117 Reporting Portal” training webinar, which will occur on Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time. The link for registration can be found here: Training Webinar: Using the New
Section 117 Reporting Portal (centralstatesedu.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=75e01bde202d593ed21c1c91c&id=40c44d9a90&e=05bce952ad) . Please note that you must be registered in advance to attend this webinar.

CSPEN encourages institutions to participate in the Department’s webinar next Monday. As noted above, you must register in advance using the links above to participate.

NACIQI (centralstatesedu.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=75e01bde202d593ed21c1c91c&id=9bd376d3d6&e=05bce952ad) New Members and Upcoming Meeting
Late yesterday, the Department announced that Adam Kissel will be the final new member appointed to serve on the NACIQI for the next six years. Mr. Kissel joins Robert Eitel, Joshua Figueria, Jay Greene, Emilee Reynolds, and Steven Taylor as the new members of the committee appointed by the Department. These six new members will join Zakiya Smith Ellis, Kathleen Sullivan Alioto, Roslyn Clark Artis, Jennifer Blum, Debbie Cochrane, Arthur Keiser, Robert Mayes, Michael Poliakoff, Gary Ransdell, Jose Luis Cruz Rivera, and Robert Shireman on the committee.

All the committee members will meet next week on Tuesday, December 16th for a one-day meeting in which they are scheduled to elect a new Chairperson and review a group of five accrediting agencies as part of the published agenda (centralstatesedu.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=75e01bde202d593ed21c1c91c&id=bb20aecbf5&e=05bce952ad) .